Digitization of the church: How video services change the community!

Digitization of the church: How video services change the community!

Volker Lange has made a name for itself as a videoographer for the Werra-Meißner church district. He has been producing video services for almost five years and has established himself as a valuable supporter of the community during Corona pandemic. At a time when church services in churches were excluded due to Lockdowns, Pastor Wehowsky asked him to film a prayer. Lange, a former head of medical technology in the Bad Hersfeld Clinic, took on the task on a voluntary basis and began to transform the church space into a digital medium.

Since the beginning of his work, a total of 166 church videos have produced. Of these, 105 were published on the YouTube channel of the Werra-Meißner church district, while 55 videos were created for a musical advent calendar of the St. Crucis parish. The first recordings were created with simple means, such as cell phone and old camcorders. In the meantime, up to four cameras, a professional sound recording device and a drone to increase the quality of its videos considerably.

The change to the digital church

Through Corona pandemic, the Evangelical Church experienced a digital thrust. Digitization is not only promoted by volunteers and long, but also by larger institutions. According to Evangelisch.de , the "digital church" offers a variety of solutions to reduce isolation. Streams of services, devotions, digital pastoral care and support for religious instruction are just a few of the measures developed during pandemic.

The Evangelical Church of Germany has found that 60 percent of the communities offered digital short devices during the pandemic, as can be seen from a study by ekd.de . The study showed that not only the use of the digital formats has grown sharply during the crisis, but also the desire to continue these offers beyond pandemic is widespread in the communities.

A particularly successful example of long work is the festive Advent concert, which was able to record over 10,500 views. This not only demonstrates the popularity of its videos, but also the continuing interest in digital church offers. Dean Ralph Beyer expressed gratitude for long tireless voluntary work in the church district.

The future of digital offers

Obviously, the future of the church could become more and more migrated to the digital sphere. In addition to long work, there are a variety of digital initiatives that were launched during corona pandemic, including live streams, online prayers and even chats for pastoral conversations. These digital offers are provided via platforms such as YouTube, Instagram and Facebook.

Despite the reopening of the churches, the need for these digital solutions has not disappeared. The experiences gained indicate that volunteers such as Volker Lange and infrastructural support by the church in the digital world are indispensable. Digitization revolutionizes the way in which faith is conveyed and creates new opportunities for interaction and community, regardless of where the parishioners are located.